COLECO PLAYS THE ODDS, PAYS FOR ADS FOR âALFâ
Get ready for ALF-mania.
The premiere of NBCâs âALFâ is still nearly a month away, but a Christmas toy is already being developed in the likeness of the sitcomâs star--a puppet who looks like a two-legged dog and talks like a Borscht-Belt comic.
If the series is a success, ALF T-shirts, Halloween costumes, lunch boxes and even an electronic talking ALF will soon follow.
In itself, the licensing of products based on ALF is not unusual. Though sitcom characters typically arenât marketed as often as action characters like âThe Six Million Dollar Manâ or âThe A-Teamâsâ Mr. T, ALF--an A lien L ife F orm who crash-lands on Earth in the first episode--seems like a natural.
What is uncommon is toymaker Coleco Industriesâ decision to throw its weight so heavily behind the series âALFâ--before audiences have a chance to see it. Coleco, maker of the Cabbage Patch dolls, agreed to foot the bill for a massive ad campaign promoting the brand-new series. The ads will make no mention of the upcoming toys.
Full-page ads will appear in US, People and USA Today with newsstand dates coinciding with âALFâsâ Sept. 22 premiere; another ad will be seen in the Oct. 23 issue of Rolling Stone and a billboard will be unveiled at Sunset and Crescent Heights boulevards, a prime Sunset Strip location, at least a week before âALFâsâ premiere.
All will proclaim that âALF lands at NBC.â The billboard will also have a word-balloon that has ALF stating, âNice planet youâve got here. When do we eat?â
âItâs very bright logic,â said Danny Simon, a vice president at Lorimar-Telepictures, the licenser of ALF products, referring to Colecoâs funding of the sitcom promotion. âWithout the success of the show, we donât have anything to license.â
âThe whole toy line is predicated on the success of the characterization,â said Alfred Kahn, executive vice president of Hartford-based Coleco. âWeâre saying that by promoting the show, arenât we also promoting the toy?â
Unlike other toys that might possibly stand on their own, ALF, Kahn said, will appeal to children largely because of his on-screen personality, which is âirreverentâ and âvery contemporary.â (ALF is also âso ugly heâs probably cute,â Kahn added.)
But the flip side of that logic is that if âALFâ the series doesnât fly, then neither will his stuffed-animal-type Christmas entries, known in the trade as âplush toys.â
NBC has ordered 13 episodes of âALF,â enough to take it through the Christmas season. But some arenât so sure of the seriesâ potential with audiences.
Media buyers in New York--the people who decide which shows most major sponsors should advertise in--predict âALFâ will be third in its time period, according to advertising executive Paul Schulman. Kids may also be split equally among âALFâ and its Monday-at-8-p.m. competition, Schulman said--âMacGyverâ on ABC and âKate & Allieâ on CBS.
âALF is an adorable alien puppet dog that has the misfortune of landing on the roof of a very boring family,â said Schulman, who successfully predicted the success of âMiami Viceâ and âGolden Girlsâ before they ever aired. ALF alone, he believes, cannot carry the show.
NBC, meanwhile, aside from disagreeing with the media buyersâ assessment, believes that the series and the Coleco toy can build on each other.
âIf âALFâ is a marginal performer and then ALF becomes the hottest toy, then people will say, âWhatâs this (series) about?â â and presumably tune in, said John Miller, NBC vice president for advertising and promotion.
Miller likened a potential ALF scenario to one that worked for âMiami Viceâ: The show did well enough to attract attention to the pastel colors and hip clothes, which in turn drew more viewers to the show, who in turn bought more âMiami Viceâ T-shirts, which helped promote the show--and so on.
The Coleco media campaign also will give âALFâ a push right from the outset that NBC would otherwise not be able to provide. âThere is a limit to the total dollars available to advertise our new shows,â said Miller, whose department did the creative work on the magazine ads and billboard that Coleco bought.
Kahn noted that there is a big potential payoff to the Coleco gamble of marketing and promoting an unproven character. If the series is a hit, Coleco will have âa preemptive positionâ in the toy market. âHow many other companies can compete with you?â Kahn asked rhetorically. âItâs not a doll, itâs not an action toy. Itâs a characterization.â
Simon said that, unlike the media buyers, manufacturers are clamoring for rights to ALF. In fact, one of the biggest decisions facing ALFâs merchandisers right now is how not to overexpose the character.
ALF has already turned down a request to appear at this yearâs Emmy awards, which take place the evening before the seriesâ premiere.
âI donât believe in oversaturating until the audience wants it,â said executive producer Bernie Brillstein, who co-owns the âALFâ series along with its co-creators, executive producer Tom Patchett (âThe Bob Newhart Showâ) and producer Paul Fusco.
But ALFâs managers are ready to make him an omnipresent figure. âALF does interviews,â said Rachel McCallister, a spokeswoman for Brillstein. Indeed, ALFâs Hollywood acumen and ad-lib skills have already been put to the test: He was interviewed last week for an upcoming segment of âEntertainment This Week.â